# Applying Innovative Approaches to Design and Implement an Intervention to Improve Cardiovascular Health in Hispanic/Latin communities through Restaurants

> **NIH NIH K01** · TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA · 2022 · $159,796

## Abstract

The overall goal of this application is to provide the candidate, Melissa Fuster, Ph.D., essential training to
transition into an independent researcher promoting nutrition and cardiovascular health in Hispanic communities
through innovative, evidence-based environmental interventions and policies. The proposed project responds to
the critical need to improve diet quality and cardiovascular health among Hispanic Caribbean communities using
innovative approaches. While most nutrition interventions target individual behaviors, there is a pressing need
to create environments that support healthy food choices. Restaurants can be a vehicle to facilitate this change,
given the growing importance of foods consumed away from home. Working with an interdisciplinary and multi-
sectoral team of mentors and collaborators, Dr. Fuster will apply a theory-based framework from Implementation
Sciences to develop and test the Hispanic Caribbean Restaurants in Action (HCRiA) initiative, an intervention to
improve nutrition environments in Puerto Rican and Dominican restaurants. Addressing the complex and
dynamic nature of restaurant environments, the study complements the theoretical framework with approaches
from systems science and human-centered design. These approaches facilitate the engagement of restaurant
stakeholders (owners, cooks, and wait-staff) to identify and solve barriers preventing healthier eating behaviors
in restaurants. Aim 1 will use a participatory group discussion technique from systems science to characterize
customer and restaurant-level factors that facilitate and hinder healthy nutrition environments in HC restaurants.
Aim 2 will apply the Behavioral Change Wheel (Implementation Sciences theoretical framework) and human-
centered design approaches to engage restaurant stakeholders (owners, staff, and customers) in the design of
the HCRiA initiative. Aim 3 will use a mixed-method, quasi-experimental design to pilot test the resulting
intervention in a total of four restaurants. Research activities will be intertwined with coursework and mentorship
to further development in the following critical training areas: (1) Human-Centered Design and Systems Science,
(2) Implementation Science, (3) Quasi-experimental methods, and (4) Large-scale project and grant
development. This K01 project contributes public health approaches to improve food environments to ameliorate
diet-related health disparities, and the application of implementation science to tackle an important evidence-
practice gap, where evidence-based dietary patterns to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease are not being
practiced at the community level. The completion of the proposed plan will provide a solid base to successfully
compete for R01-level funding for a full-scale community trial of the HCRiA initiative, bolster the applicant’s
publication record through dissemination activities among researchers and the community, and augment
diversity among nutrition researchers.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10480895
- **Project number:** 5K01HL147882-04
- **Recipient organization:** TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
- **Principal Investigator:** Melissa Fuster
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $159,796
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-01 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10480895

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10480895, Applying Innovative Approaches to Design and Implement an Intervention to Improve Cardiovascular Health in Hispanic/Latin communities through Restaurants (5K01HL147882-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10480895. Licensed CC0.

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